Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Not all heroes wear capes.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

The words do not have to be perfect.

John Fetterman: Too Manly for Pennsylvania.  Paid for by the Oz for Senator campaign.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

This fight is for everything.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

You are here: Home / Authors In Our Midst / Authors In Our Midst: Dorothy Winsor, The Trickster

Authors In Our Midst: Dorothy Winsor, The Trickster

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I feel terrible, I completely missed Dorothy’s publication date, even though I knew it was coming up! I blame raising ducklings. So delayed, but welcome, here’s Dorothy Winsor on her latest novel:

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Authors In Our Midst: Dorothy Winsor

Last weekend, Frankensteinbeck told us about how his new books spin off characters into books of their own. I did the same thing with the three-book series I just wrapped up. The Wind Reader was about a kid who was stuck in a city far from home and hanging out with two other street kids. The Wysman takes one of his friends, a kid with a crutch, and gives him his own story. The Trickster, which came out last month, is about Dilly, the pickpocket girl of the original trio.

Writing about Dilly was made easier because I knew some things about her ahead of time. As The Trickster opens, she’s gone home to Lac’s Holding and is a lady in waiting for the lord’s daughter. I knew Dilly had always admired this woman and was thrilled just to be near her. So obviously, I had a chance to spoil that. Yay!

Also I’d never set a story in Lac’s Holding, but I knew it was a port city and I’d always thought of it as being like New Orleans. So I set the story during a festival like Mardi Gras because story possibilities are built into people in masks amid drinking and chaos.

I knew that in The Wind Reader, Dilly was on the streets of Rin City because a man took her and her mother there and abandoned them. From a scene in the The Wind Reader I knew the man had groped Dilly. So she’s a sexual assault survivor and that shaped her actions.

Reusing a character also meant I was stuck with some things that were hard to manage. In The Wind Reader, I’d given Dilly a dog named Tuc for the very BJ reason that I like dogs. In Trickster, Dilly is the central character, so she’s on the page much more, which meant Tuc was too. I had to write “DOG” at the top of each page so I’d remember to include things like “Tuc scratched his ear.” It was a pain, and I finally realized it was also boring. So I decided to make more of Tuc rather than leaving him as just Dilly’s companion. I don’t want to spoil the book by saying what that “more” was, but once I started working with it, writing about Tuc was a lot more fun.

Both The Wysman and The Trickster came out while we were locked down. All writers had trouble spreading the word about their books with no bookstores and no in-person events. I had an especially hard time because my publisher is tiny. I love them for a variety of reasons, including that they’re a registered social enterprise in the UK. That means they turn part of their profits back to the community. Right now, for instance, they donate a book to homeless shelters every time they sell ten books from their website. They usually pick out a book with an LGBTQ character. They’re awesome, but their promotion is limited.

So my timing was terrible. But The Trickster is out now. I’m proud of it, and I hope people enjoy reading it.

 Finders Keepers (Zharmae 2015)
Deep as a Tomb (Loose Leaves 2016)
The Wind Reader (Inspired Quill 2018)
The Wysman (Inspired Quill, 2020)
The Trickster (Inspired Quill, March 2021)

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TaMara again – I’m in awe of this trilogy because Dorothy has created such rich and vibrant worlds that draw me in (note: I’ve only read the first two, Trickster is on my list). I highly recommend them. Dorothy should be around to field any questions in the thread, so ask away. Publishing, promoting, creating an entire world for your characters to frolic in, or how she became a writer would all be a good place to start a fun conversation.

I’ll try to stick around, but if things go as plan, the duckteens will not only spend the day outside, but the night in the coop for the first time, so I’m going to be cleaning the house from top to bottom because it looks like I had a down pillow explosion in every room…not to mention ducks are filthy creatures in general (lovely, but filthy, LOL). But I’ll keep popping in and out.

Let’s talk books!

Reader Interactions

55Comments

  1. 1.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    Thanks, TaMara. After I sent you this, I remembered that someone on BJ (Joyce H?) told me that spinning off characters was common in the romance genre. So I’m sure folks who read fiction have seen it elsewhere too.

  4. 4.

    Tom Levenson

    Dorothy: Congrats! And major props–to publish two books during the pandemic is immense. I’m working on a new one myself, but the impact on concentration over the last several months has been immense, and I don’t know how you do it.

    Also: yes…publishing into a global catastrophe sucks. Been there, done that. Better times to come, I hope…

    Looking forward to reading it.

  5. 5.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    Tom, I didn’t actually write these books during the pandemic. Wysman came out in March 2020, which means it was written well before that. And Trickster was turned in to my publisher that same month. As you know publishing is slow, so it just came out. I too had trouble concentrating during the pandemic. There was a span of time in which I couldn’t even read.

    But I’ve been feeling much better and I’m finishing a draft of a new one.

    What’s your new book about?

  6. 6.

    CarolPW

    I loved what you did with Tuc so glad you gave in to his attention begging. Are you going to keep writing in that world?

  9. 9.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @CarolPW: I am, but not with these characters. At the end of Trickster, the characters are going to a place called the Dolyan Islands. The thing I’m trying to draft is set there with other characters.

    When I thought of what to do with Tuc, it made me very happy. :-)

  11. 11.

    Tom Levenson

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I’m working on a book that follows the structure of my last-but-one, The Hunt for Vulcan, only this time the hinge event is the development of germ theory in the 1870s and ’80s.

    Nothing remotely relevant there, amirite?

    And I hear you on the reading. I just finished reading the first concentrated bit of new-to-me novel reading, devouring Richard Powers Overstory (which is extraordinary). I haven’t read that much except for work in a year, and the fiction I’ve mostly turned to has been familiar comfort stuff or pure escape. I’m getting back to more new and exciting work now.

  16. 16.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Congratulations, DAW! Did you conceive these books as a trilogy/three-book series from the very beginning, or did you realise as you were writing The Wind Reader that you wanted to develop both Jarka and Dilly more fully and give them there own books?

    I love your anecdote about writing the dog! There are a number of series writers I enjoy well enough, but they tend to give their characters (two- and four-legged alike) the same kind of actions and descriptions, book after book after book. I get the need to provide a little context for someone who is reading one as a stand-alone, but it’s boring as hell for me and for most readers, I should think, and probably for the authors as well. I’m so glad you don’t do that!

  21. 21.

    Jay

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    yup. The jib is the foresail on a Marconi rigged boat.

    while it can act as a full sail, all by it’s self, paired with a mainsail, it is trimmed to act like the slots on a STOL aircraft, feeding the wind into the mainsail more efficiently.

    Prior to the 1950’s, the “cut” of a jib was developed through trial and error, documented in formulae, and varied by every individual sailmaker’s experience. The old fabrics, ( canvas or cotton), required complex multi panel construction, that was easily seen in the seams of the panels. Inexpensive jibs might have as little as 4 panels, better jibs, up to 20. A great jib might have as much as 40 feet of additional hand stiching.

  23. 23.

    JoyceH

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: 

    I suppose “success” depends on your definition. My sales are low but I’m happy with what I’ve done, so I guess I decided that was “success” to me.

    What are you doing to promote your books? You can’t count on publishers for promotion anymore. I’m self-published so any promotion comes down to me. Last year I didn’t publish any new books, but I ran three BookBub promos, and had the best year of sales in my career, promoting books that were published in 2015-2018. I recently attended a webinar for Facebook ads, which is a subject that I’ve never been able to master, and want to give that a try again – the author running the webinar had some amazing statistics on effectiveness.

  24. 24.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @JoyceH: I must admit whatever I’m doing isn’t working.

    As I recall, BookBub accepted a promotion for your town/country twin book. I can’t adjust the price on my books. Or rather I could do it only with my publisher’s consent. Is it possible to use BookBub on your own?

  26. 26.

    WereBear

    @JoyceH: Thanks for the idea. I’m a BookBub customer (helpless and hapless… most of their picks are really good) but need to look into being a promoter as well!

  27. 27.

    WereBear

    I knew Dilly had always admired this woman and was thrilled just to be near her. So obviously, I had a chance to spoil that. Yay!

    I still remember how, while still a reader, I realized how things should not go well. And the possibilities for story that provided :)

  28. 28.

    JoyceH

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: ​
     

    Oh, I forgot the publisher complication. I believe BookBub only accepts books that have done a price reduction for the promo. Do you think you could interest them in that? I run my promos for free, and I used to have a mental block about giving away copies of my books, but man, do you make back the money with the sell-through!

    Some of the big traditional publishers have found BookBub, I’ve seen promos on books that were published years or decades ago, some of the old Peter Wimsey mysteries even.

    BookBub also runs ads, at the bottom of their newsletter, that don’t require a price reduction (and also aren’t subject to their selection, which is nice because getting a promo accepted requires a lot of rejection), but I haven’t heard how well they do.

    I think you could do Facebook ads on your own without their permission, the cost of the ads would be out of your pocket, so no skin off their nose. But Facebook ads… have an enormous learning curve that I haven’t yet successfully navigated.

  33. 33.

    piratedan

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: sounds to me that our esteemed blog-host needs to start a new LLC, Tunch Press.  He could corner the market on How To Mustard Procurement titles and start to carve out a new media empire.  I’m sure that this is how Rupert Murdoch got his start.

  34. 34.

    Jay

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    yup, and so over time, “I like the cut of your jib”, went from an actual comment on the jib, to a comment on someone’s ethics, abilities, personality and teamwork.

  38. 38.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    I’m in the middle of The Wysman right now. It’s open in another window, in Kindle. I didn’t realize it was part of a series but after I started reading it, I thought it felt like a sequel so I checked your website and learned about The Wind Reader.

    It’s a rich, well-developed world and I imagine you could do a lot more stories in that world if you felt like it.

    Somewhere I heard that eBooks generate more royalties for the author than paper ones. I hope that’s true.

  39. 39.

    Amir Khalid

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    You got the literal meaning right. The jib is the frontmost sail on a sailing vessel — so Google tells this landlubber — so it’s probably the first thing you see on a ship that’ coming towards you.

  41. 41.

    JoyceH

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: ​
     

    Speaking as a self-publisher, I get WAY more royalties from the ebooks than the paperbacks. I’ve done paperback versions of my Regencies, because there’s still a huge non-ebook reader market out there, but haven’t gotten around to it for my fantasies.

    With the paperbacks, you can set your own price, but the cost of the printing has to be covered, so if I set the price so my royalties would match ebook royalties, I think it would make the books too expensive. Some authors just say to heck with it and make their paperbacks expensive, but I try to keep the price to that of a traditionally published paperback, so the royalties are about half the ebook royalties. It would be worth it if I was making massive sales on the paperbacks, but I honestly don’t know HOW to market a physical paper book, so I only sell one or two of them occasionally.

  43. 43.

    JoyceH

    BTW, got to say that I love Living In The Future. Used to be self-publishing meant that you wound up with boxes of books in your attic or garage (and generally couldn’t sell hardly any of them), but now even with a physical book, it just sits there as a listing on a website until someone orders it and THEN they print a copy.

  45. 45.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @SiubhanDuinne: Couldn’t help noticing that article commits the latest assault on the English language, “concerning” as an adjective.

    They discovered a body art salon that announced itself as offering “TATTOO’S,” a concerning error for an establishment whose primary service was the permanent inking of skin.

  46. 46.

    Amir Khalid

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:
    I’m thinking that someone should start a Society for The Prevention of Cruelty to Semicolons; that’s another punctuation mark I see neglected and misused all too often.

  49. 49.

    Tehanu

    I quite liked The Wind Reader and I’m about to get both of the sequels. Very imaginative fantasy.

  50. 50.

    Dr. Daniel Price (Saint Vincent)

    I do not wish to hijack Ms. Winsor’s celebration, but also wish to note that my bride’s memoir of our life with a young transgender male (Somewhere Under the Rainbow) is to be released on 4 May 2021.  If mention here is inappropriate, please advise; I have been hoping that another general call for authors would occur but have not seen one recently.

    Now a question:  my next collection of cryptic crosswords–earlier releases have been introduced here, and I am grateful–is soon to be released.  I have to date used only Amazon’s KDP, but am considering a move to IngramSpark.  Advice is greatly appreciated.

    Regarding semicolons:  I purchase them in bulk, as a proper sentence must have at least twenty words; semicolons abound, accordingly.

  52. 52.

    J R in WV

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    You don’t fancy me?

    AaaaRrrrrr…

    I am so disappoint now~!!~                   ;~)

    Also, best wishes for the high-volume sales of your new publication !!

  53. 53.

    J R in WV

    Semicolons are only like commas when they’re used to repair a comma-splice between two sentences, unless I misunderstand them more than I think I do.

  54. 54.

    stinger

    Arghhhh! Now that we’re both fully vaccinated, I go to Waterloo to visit my sister in person for the first time in 16 months, and it turns out to be the day Dorothy’s latest book is featured on BJ!  :-(

    I read The Trickster the minute it hit my Kindle, and loved it. She’s done a couple of things really well — the religion of the “world” is fascinating, with multiple gods recognized by all, but different people make  different gods a focal point, and “worship” means something closer to the ancient Roman style than to modern day USian church. And magic is a part of the world, but it’s not a means of solving every problem that arises.

    I loved all her main characters in all 5 books and would gladly follow any of them into subsequent works — but if Dorothy chooses to write about different people, I’m sure I’ll like them too!

    I am so very happy with Tuc, and there’s something near the end of the story that reminds me of Voyage of the Dawn Treader and the Piper chapter in Wind of the Willows — the very best kind of magic there is!

  55. 55.

    Kayla Rudbek

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: yes, I’ve seen it a lot in historical and/or paranormal romance. Series are great in my opinion.

    Also, a question for you and the other jackal authors: would you find it weird if your readers create fan art or fan craft projects (knitting, crocheting, etc.) based on or inspired by your books, and potentially give you their art or projects? I have a shawl on the needles right now inspired by one of Diane Duane’s novels, and I’m trying to decide whether it would be a cool gesture to send it to her US publisher as a gift, or whether I should keep it for virtual fan convention as part of a costume for myself,

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